A family in Castlebar is ‘grateful and relieved’ after their 17-year-old goldfish Merlin received life-saving surgery to remove a cancerous tumour.

The rare and intricate procedure was performed by veterinarian Emer O’Reilly.

Speaking to Moncrieff, Ms O’Reilly said it was the first time she had put a goldfish under anaesthetic.

“Merlin presented to me about a month ago,” she said.

“The owners had noticed a growth under his eye, but it had gotten so large that it was dangling down and stopping him from being able to see his food.

“So, he’d actually stopped eating.”

'Quite tricky'

Ms O’Reilly said trying to remove the growth was ‘fairly simple’, but keeping conditions right for Merlin throughout the surgery was ‘quite tricky’.

“We do things like that every day, but it was our first time at the clinic putting a goldfish under anaesthetic,” she said.

“It is quite tricky – it involves several tanks or water baths, each one with a different concentration of anaesthetic and oxygen through it, and then moving Merlin between the baths to try and find the right depth of anaesthesia for the surgery.”

Ms O’Reilly said that although Merlin is only a couple of inches in length, her qualification in exotic animal practice means she has experience in performing surgeries on other small creatures such as gerbils and hamsters.

Recovery

Unfortunately, Mr O’Reilly said it was not possible to fully remove Merlin’s tumour.

“The base of the tumour was very large and it was very close to his eye,” she said.

“So, we removed the vast majority of it and we don't know if it will grow back again.

“We're hoping that Merlin will get a good bit of time and a good quality of life now after this procedure.”

The goldfish has since returned home with his owners after recovering from the surgery, and is doing ‘hunky-Dory’ for now.

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